SO POETRY, THE DRAMA, [1818

be a poet than a dramatist; upon our plan more
easily a dramatist than a poet.

The Drama generally and Public Taste

Unaccustomed to address such an audience,
and having lost by a long interval of confine-
ment the advantages of my former short schooling,
I had miscalculated in my last lecture the pro-
portion of my matter to my time, and by bad
economy and unskilful management, the several
heads of my discourse failed in making the entire
performance correspond with the promise publicly
circulated in the weekly annunciation of the
subjects to be treated. It would, indeed, have
been wiser in me, and perhaps better on the
whole, if I had caused my lectures to be an-
nounced only as continuations of the main subject.
But if I be, as perforce I must be, gratified by
the recollection of whatever has appeared to give
you pleasure, I am conscious of something better,
though less flattering, a sense of unfeigned
gratitude for your forbearance with my defects.
Like affectionate guardians, you see without
disgust the awkwardness, and witness with
sympathy the growing pains,of a youthful endeav-
our, and look forward with a hope, which is
its own reward, to the contingent results of
practice—to its intellectual maturity.

In my last address I defined poetry to be
the art, or whatever better term our language
may afford, of representing external nature and
human thoughts, both relatively to human affec-
tions, so as to cause the production of as great
immediate pleasure in each part, as is compatible